Karen Farrington

The inspiring, uplifting true story of a group of London girls dispatched to a children’s home in rural England during the Blitz, and the formidable matron who transformed their lives

Life in Britain between the two world wars was arduous and daunting. Working people laboured to stave off the spectres of disease, hunger and homelessness, and against this troubled backdrop, children inevitably came off worst.

This is the true story of a group of poor London girls who, to escape the merciless bombing of the Luftwaffe, were dispatched to a children’s home in Ascot. Where once they heard the throb of railways and tasted the smoke of locomotives, now there was birdsong and a whole new set of escapades to enjoy. And under the care of the formidable but kindly Matron Doris Bailey – the Angel of Englemere – the lives of the girls were utterly transformed.

Through first-hand accounts from the surviving girls, their stories and anecdotes shed light on life at the time – from the emotional upheaval of evacuation, rationing and royalty, love and loss, and adventures on the royal grounds of their new home – recounting the people who came into the orbit of girls, from princesses to socialites, and above all, the work of one woman who helped save a generation.